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Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Four Spanish climbers missing on Gasherbrum I 8068-M(Hidden Peak)

Islamabad:Four Spaniards went missing on Sunday after scaling the Gasherbrum-I 8,068-M peak in the Karakoram range, Manzoor Hussain, President
Alpine Club of Pakistan that coordinated the expedition, “We came to know about
the four missing Spanish climbers today due to communication problems,” Hussain
said.

Anwar Ali of
Lela Peak Expedition, the company running the trip, told AFP that one of the
climbers had managed to make it back to base camp but the other three were
still missing.

Hussain said
search teams and other members of the expedition were looking for them.

“They have
requested a search helicopter, but the weather is bad today and tomorrow also,”
he said.

“The chances
of a helicopter search and rescue mission tomorrow (Wednesday) are slim.”

Three Iranian
climbers went missing on another mountain last week and rescuers had called off
the search for them, but at the insistence of the Iranian embassy another
search effort was mounted on Tuesday, Hussain said, but to no avail.

The Iranians
sent a distress call just after reaching the summit of the 8,051-metre Broad
Peak on July 16.

“Today a
helicopter was sent again on the mission but it could not find anyone and
returned due to bad weather,” Hussain said.

Pakistan is
home to five of the world's 14 peaks over 8,000 metres, including the world's
second-highest mountain, K2, but conditions are harsh and deaths not uncommon.